Defenders can no longer “land on the passer“ during pass

Uncle Si":453v30c2 said:

Chapow":453v30c2 said:

JGfromtheNW":453v30c2 said:

Another rule set up that will require refs to make really hard decisions in important situations and continue to make the game harder on defenses. Wonderful.

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This is why this rule is a horrible idea. It will be very difficult to officiate fairly and consistently. They need to be doing less of this, not more. The refs already have a job that's impossible to get right much of the time due to the complexity of the rules and the nature of the game.

And LOL at the flag football comments. While the NFL isn't as brutally violent as it used to be, it's still pretty damn far from flag football.

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for now

Look at the rule changes over the last 20 years. What's in store for the league the next 20?

Multimillion dollar class action lawsuits? ratings drops? decrease in youth participation? more rule changes to soften the impacts? (that was just the last few years)

If you're not worried about the future of the league then you should be

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I'm really not. You know why? Because as much as I love my Seahawks and as much as I love football Sundays with my friends, if the the NFL were disbanded tomorrow and there was never another football game played ever, life would go on and I'd find something else to do with my time. Yes, I would be bummed for awhile, maybe even a long while, but then I'd get over it and move on.

But really, I'm not at all worried that anything like that is going to happen so I guess that makes it easier to feel that way.

Yeah, the NFL has changed and continues to change. Yet, I just watched a couple of preseason games yesterday and was still plenty entertained by what I saw on the field. Including plenty of HARD hits and dudes beating the crap out of each other.

Like I said, the NFL is still pretty damn far from flag football.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/WillBrinson/status/1030905045120950273[/tweet]

It’s scary that this is a penalty now. Defender even made an attempt to both keep his helmet up and roll to the left of the QB.

Also, I thought the passer had to actually throw the ball for the “body weight” rule to come into play. Confusing stuff.

This is not landing on the passer but this was probably the worse penalty I've seen so far

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Rob_Lowder/status/1030991752390311936[/tweet]

chris98251":3lv2ka3h said:

I look at it this way, they just gave the officials another phantom call to steer games.

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This is the case, whether intended or not. We already know which teams will benefit from this rule.
Like I’ve said for a long while now, the rule book needs to be streamlined and condensed, not expanded.

SF49r":8f68ytku said:

This is not landing on the passer but this was probably the worse penalty I've seen so far

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Rob_Lowder/status/1030991752390311936[/tweet]

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Yep, that one and the clip above both are BS penalty’s. The NFL at some point needs to realize they are over officiating games and they themselves are killing their product. Their games have no flow because of the constant flag fest. If a call is obvious call it, if it’s ticky tack or you “think you MAY have see something”, don’t call anything.

It's the preseason, they are being over sensitive on throwing flags to collect feedback and it will be much different in the regular season.

adeltaY":utdce3oy said:

It's the preseason, they are being over sensitive on throwing flags to collect feedback and it will be much different in the regular season.

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Sure, to a point. There will still be more unnecessary flags thrown however. The NFL has a huge officiating/rulebook problem, and until they admit it and take real steps to fix it, the game will suffer and the fanbase will dwindle.

Despite the false narrative that the NFL is in trouble, fan base is dwindling, etc. it continues to dominate the ratings.

http://adage.com/article/media/ratings-slum/311777/

According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, NFL games accounted for 37 of the year's top 50 broadcasts, or nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of the most-watched programs on TV. That marked a 32 percent increase compared to 2016, when the NFL laid claim to 28 of the top 50 most-watched programs, and was flat versus the 37 top airings the league chalked up in the previous year.

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Are NFL ratings down? Yep.

Are overall TV ratings down? Yep.

Does the NFL continue to absolutely dominate the ratings? Yep.

Then there's also this interesting bit.

NBC's "Sunday Night Football," which remained the No. 2 NFL window with an average delivery of 18.2 million viewers and a 10.3 household rating, accounted for six of 2017's top 50 broadcasts. And while that marked an 11 percent drop from the year-ago 20.4 million viewers and 11.4 rating, the margin separating "Sunday Night Football" from its general-entertainment competition is only widening. In eight head-to-head fall matchups, NBC's premiere NFL showcase averaged a 6.5 rating in the target demo, which works out to 8.38 million adults 18-49; by comparison, AMC's "The Walking Dead" drew a 3.8, or around 4.9 million members of the dollar demo.

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So while overall TV ratings are down, the NFL is actually becoming more dominant in the ratings than they already were and they were already an absolute juggernaut.

So again, despite what people would like to believe or how people feel, the NFL is pretty damn far from in trouble.

The old adage is that you can find a penalty or holding on every play. But this seems infinitely more the case with this helmet rule. I'm watching preseason games and I can spot helmet lowering on literally every play at some position group. Like Sherman has indicated, it's a matter of physiology. But it's not called until it is. And for the most part, it seems like it's the ref's discretion as to whether he thought a hit was too hard or not. So just like every big running play you look for a yellow flag, every third down stop you looking for a flag in the secondary, now every defensive stop you'll look for a yellow flag that's entirely at the ref's discretion. In a game of inches, this is way too "swingy".